Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Official Report
732KB pdf
Point of Order
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I wonder whether I may seek your advice.
On 25 October, in response to a question that I asked at First Minister’s question time, the First Minister said in part of his reply:
“There are now, I think, 18,000 people employed directly in renewable energy across Scotland.”—[Official Report, 25 October 2012; c 12617.]
A Scottish Government briefing, which is based on the evidence produced by the renewables sector, says very clearly that there are in fact 11,000 people directly employed in the sector, which is a difference of 7,000.
When the error was pointed out to the First Minister’s office yesterday, a Scottish Government spokesman said:
“The first minister has corrected the parliament’s official report to make it clear there now are 11,000 jobs supported by Scotland’s renewable energy sector.”
Presiding Officer, may I ask your advice as to whether the official record can be amended in this way without the First Minister acknowledging to Parliament that an error has been made and without informing the member concerned?
I thank the member for her advance notice of the point of order. I was first made aware of the issue earlier this afternoon and I have since made inquiries.
I understand that the original request from the First Minister’s office for a correction to the Official Report was made on the morning of 15 November. I can confirm that the correction to the Official Report was made this afternoon.
The process for agreeing corrections to the Official Report was agreed in a report by the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee in 2010. That report also sets out the criteria used by the official report and the processes to be followed. The member will be well aware that the guidance includes steps that a member should take to publicise the correction when it has been made. I confirm that the correction to the Official Report was made this afternoon. All this information is set out on the official report’s web page on the Parliament’s website. [Interruption.]